Ori Ossmy presents Integrative Approach to the Development of Physical Cognition

Physical cognition involves solving problems that are ubiquitous across species,
ages and cultures—how to navigate a cluttered environment, use a tool, and so
on. As our bodies, skills, and environments change, new problems emerge and
require new means to solve them. With learning and development, children respond
more adaptively and efficiently to environmental challenges and opportunities.
Traditionally, developmental research focuses on macro changes in problem
solving skills by identifying the ages at which children solve particular
problems and characterizing differences among children at different points in
learning or development. This outcome-oriented approach established that
physical cognition begins in infancy and improves with age and experience, but
is limited in informing about how and why change occurs. In contrast, my ground
hypothesis is that macro changes in physical cognition emerge from micro,
real-time experiences. These real-time experiences, in turn, play out in an
interactive system of perceptual, neural, cognitive, and motor processes. The
efficiency of these processes and their interactions differ widely among
individuals. From cruising infants to football-playing robots, I test this
hypothesis by adopting an innovative integrative approach that combines
interdisciplinary perspectives (child development, cognitive neuroscience, motor
control, computer science), methods (eye-tracking, EEG, motion tracking,
robotics, computer vision, virtual reality, and video), ages (infants, children,
adults, older adults), and tasks (manual and locomotor).